


thunderous sparks

by laurenshappenstobemyhusband



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Asano Gakushuu being a little shit, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Rivalry, Human Korosensei (Assassination Classroom), Karma being a little shit, M/M, Nagisa being a BAMF too, Nakamura being a BAMF, Slytherin Pride, This Fic Has Everything, Triwizard Tournament, and so much more! - Freeform, slytherin discrimination, supportive class E, whos also a dark wizard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurenshappenstobemyhusband/pseuds/laurenshappenstobemyhusband
Summary: Nagisa feels his legs trembling as he stands with the Beauxbatons school champion, a blond girl who stands a few inches taller than him. Yeah, he signed up, but he didn't actually expect to bechosen.He's so focused on his own plight that he almost doesn't hear the last name being called."And from Durmstrang, we have... Akabane Karma.""No way." "Wasn't he expelled from Hogwarts two years ago?" "I hear he beat someone up just for looking at him." "I hear he's done the killing curse."If Karma hears any of the whispers, he doesn't show it. He strides down the table, joining Nagisa by the Triwizard Cup with a smile and a wave to the audience."Hey, Nagisa," he whispers among the chaos, like no time passed at all. "It's been a while."
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Shiota Nagisa
Comments: 51
Kudos: 367





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title's from a neutral milk hotel song. hella poetic. anyway enjoy my brainchild and stan karma for clear skin

#### Shiota Nagisa's tombstone will say, "He only put his name in because he played truth or dare while drunk."

To be fair, it wasn't - entirely - his own dumb decision that led to him putting his name into the Triwizard Cup. That honor goes to Itona, who has a bit of a sadistic streak when he gets firewhiskey in him. The aforementioned alcohol was bought by Terasaka's gang, funded by everyone present, and Chiba and Hayami were in charge of making sure they didn't get caught sneaking it in.

Not a bad team effort for a bunch of delinquents.

Nagisa normally doesn't participate in Firewhiskey Friday Nights. It just feels like they're reinforcing the negative stereotypes thought up by the rest of the houses. That they're troublemakers, schemers, no good dumbasses who will probably go on to be death eaters anyway. As the son of a known past death eater who's still in Azkaban, that last one always hits the hardest when Gakushuu throws it at him.

But it's been a long day, and with the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament just a few days ago, he figures that there's cause to get smashed with his friends and then sleep Saturday away. Okuda knows some good hangover cures, anyway.

"Okano, truth or dare?" Maehara calls, eyes half lidded. He's horrible at taking his alcohol, not that anybody ever stops him. He'll probably be asleep soon, with the marker on his face in the morning to remind him never to fall asleep in a room full of Slytherins.

"Um, dare." 

"I dare you to go get Kataoka and bring her here."

A chorus of groans can be heard after this, not that Maehara cares. Waking up Kataoka, who would never in a million years join them willingly in the common room on Friday nights, is an overused dare, and one that always leads to the perpetrator getting an earful. There's a reason she's the prefect of their year, and she never lets them forget it. At least Isogai sits with them sometimes, although he never drinks a drop.

Nagisa sinks into his cushion sleepily while Okano leaves to the girls' dorm to get Kataoka. It's nice to be with his class outside of the public eye, where a Gryffindor can trip them or a Ravenclaw can ruin their homework with an "accidentally" spilled ink pot. 

Hogwarts doesn't feel like the safest place in the world when even the headmaster gives your table dirty looks at dinner.

He doesn't realize he's fallen asleep until he gets an elbow jabbed in his side. He stirs to find the whole group staring at him, including Kayano at his side, who was probably the owner of the elbow that woke him up.

"Nagisa, truth or dare?" Itona asks, probably repeating himself. Nagisa didn't come to play, but everyone's still looking expectantly at him and his blood is still running warm from the alcohol. Truth is an option, but there are way too many secrets he has that the alcohol could unlock. _One dare can't hurt, right?_

"Dare."

"I dare you to enter your name into the Triwizard Cup."

There are a few halfhearted complaints with that. While there are no set rules in their truth or dare, it feels like the only unspoken one is _no one should be obligated to potentially put their life at risk with a dare._ They're still waiting for his response, though. Nobody can say no to it except for him, in which case he'll probably get a milder dare from Sugino or Yada or something.

_But why not go for it? It can't hurt to just put your name in. Everyone will see you as really manly if you do. You could use that kind of image boost._

"Sure," he says, because he's definitely too drunk to make these kinds of weighty decisions. "Remind me at breakfast tomorrow."

Everyone _gapes,_ then he feels a few hands clap him on the back and Mimura declares him his favorite person ever and the game continues. Nagisa drags himself to bed sometime around one, taking a fully unconscious Sugino with him because it's his friendship responsibility to make sure he's not stuck in the common room all night. 

By the time he climbs into his own bed, he only remembers a vague idea of what he has to do the next morning. _I have to put my name... somewhere. Graffiti, maybe? Eh, I'll deal with it tomorrow._ It's probably for the best that he doesn't remember what he signed himself up for; he wouldn't be able to fall asleep otherwise.

* * *

The next morning, he's _very_ confused by the twenty sets of eyes on him, watching him shovel eggs into his mouth.

"Why's everyone staring?" he whispers to Kayano, who's doing a bit of staring herself.

"You don't remember last night?" At his vague shrug, she continues. "Oh my god. Um, well, Itona dared you to do something here. Nowish."

"Is it anything to do with stripping? Because I'm pretty sure we outlawed that after Okajima's last dare-"

"No, nothing like that!" She paused, unsure. Then her eyes creep over to the giant goblet in the middle of the room, and Nagisa's heart drops straight down into his stomach. He suddenly has no appetite for his eggs at all.

"He dared me to..." He can't finish his sentence, so he points to the cup dumbly. Kayano nods, reading his face with a pinched expression.

"We would've totally overruled his dare but you looked so sure of yourself, and you didn't even hesitate. It's not too late to back out, though. It's a pretty big thing," she says in a rush. The people close enough to her to hear the conversation nod enthusiastically, which only makes Nagisa's chest tighter.

He wouldn't be the first person to put his name in, not even from their year. Terasaka's whole group put their names in, with Maehara and Chiba following. Even Isogai put his name in, saying it would be a good experience to have. 

He knows the kinds of whispers that spread around the room every time a Slytherin puts their name in. He hears the taunts and jeers about how a Slytherin champion wouldn't be a champion at all, because winning on bloodlust is just how a death eater does it. He hears it, and he blocks it out, just like the rest of his year.

But if he can enter... if he can _win..._ maybe he can change all of that.

He clears his head from this idiotic train of thought. Even if he does get picked, there's no way he'll win. The best he could do would be to not look stupid while losing. But before he knows it, he's standing up with a slip of paper in his hand that he doesn't remember writing, and when he drops the paper into the fire, he can hear the crackle of the flames deep in his bones.

His table's congratulations can't fully block out the boos and laughs from the other tables, but they help. 

There's no lasting fanfare about it, not like when someone from Durmstrang or Beauxbatons puts their name in. There are only fifteen people from each school, but they all came to enter and cheer their victor on. Even though their tables are near the back, Nagisa can still hear bits of French and Norwegian through the bustle.

"You'd make a really cool champion," Kayano says when he sits back down.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," he says instead of refuting her point. Kayano has a way of hammering positivity into him when he tries to counteract it, and his head hurts too much for an argument. _Why did I have to be born such a lightweight?_

He spends the rest of the weekend hanging out with Kayano and Sugino and trying not to think about the Triwizard cup. It's so dumb, bringing a goblet of death to a high school and tempting all of the kids with money and fame. _You're one of the idiots who put their name in,_ his brain reminds him, and he shoves the thought aside aggressively, chucking a piece of fish to the squid in the lake. It surfaces for a second to grab it, waving one arm wildly at him.

When Monday rolls around, he's repressed the thought of the tournament so much, he's almost surprised when Headmaster Asano announces that the names will be drawn from the goblet that night. Nagisa already knows who _he_ wants to be chosen; his son is basically his clone, after all. Head boy of Gryffindor, top grades in the school, keeper for quidditch. It's no wonder no one accuses the elder Asano of favoritism; Gakushuu is so perfect, it would be wrong for anyone else to be head boy.

He doesn't realize he's squeezing his quill until it snaps in his hand. Sugino, his Potions partner, looks on worriedly. 

"Are you alright?" he asks, and is immediately shushed by Professor Karasuma. For a Slytherin himself, you'd think he would be nicer to his own house. No nice favoritism like Asano gives to his students; just cold glances and extra assignments.

"Yeah," Nagisa answers, pulling a new quill from his bag. "Just stressed for tonight."

"You mean the Triwizard Cup Ceremony?" a voice behind him asks, and he stiffens. It's one of Gakushuu's cronies, although he can't tell which one, nor could he name them under a truth serum. All four are basically one person sharing a brain cell that says taunt the Slytherins and lick the ground Gakushuu walks on. "I wouldn't worry if I were you. After all, what are the odds that the goblet will choose you? Unless they're looking for scrawny demon spawn this year in particular."

"Back off," Sugino says.

"What will you do, hex me?" the crony asks, and Sugino almost growls.

"Ignore him," Nagisa says, sinking lower in his chair. "We have to finish this potion or we'll fail this assignment."

"I know, but-"

"Is there a problem here?" Professor Karasuma asks, looking from Sugino to the crony. 

"No professor," the crony says immediately, taking the kiss-ass route as always. "Nagisa was just trying to start a fight with me."

"Really? Seems unlike him." Karasuma takes zero shit from anyone. It's one of the reasons he's Nagisa's favorite teacher. "If you keep talking in class, however, I will have to take points from both Gryffindor _and_ Slytherin."

"Got it, professor," Sugino says, and Nagisa nods. Karasuma walks away, and the crony says something under his breath that sounds a lot like "maggot food." Karasuma stops mid-step.

"Ten points from Gryffindor. Keep yourself together, Mr. Koyoma. I don't want to have to lower your grade in this class, especially given how well you're doing." Like Nagisa said, zero shit.

Dinner seems to rush towards him like a freight train, but he's honestly glad to get it over with. No more losing sleep from this dumb cup. He can move on, cheer for whoever was un/lucky enough to get chosen from his school, and be a spectator like he always is. No participation necessary.

The announcement comes mid-meal. Headmaster Asano gives a small speech about the importance and significance of the Triwizard Tournament, and the fire burns blue from the goblet. Then a second later, it turns red, and a singed piece of paper comes floating out.

Headmaster Asano catches it, adjusting his glasses before reading it aloud.

"From Beauxbatons Academy, we have Nakamura Rio," he calls, and the Beauxbatons table erupts into cheers. A tall blond girl, presumably Nakamura herself, stands and curtsies, making her way to the middle of the room.

The fire turns red again, and a new slip of paper flies out. Headmaster Asano pauses before reading the name this time, frowning a little. Nagisa isn't exactly sure why, but he feels his heart sink into his stomach.

"From Hogwarts, we have... Shiota Nagisa."

Nagisa's face goes white. He can barely hear the shouts around him, feel the slaps on the back by his classmates. He can't even hear what the other tables are saying, not that it's anything good, most likely.

"Nagisa, they're calling you," Kayano says, and he nods blankly. Of course they're calling him. He's the Hogwarts Triwizard nominee. 

Slowly, robotically, he climbs over the bench and approaches the headmaster, who looks at him like he's a walking corpse. Which, given how lightheaded he is, might be an accurate description of him. He feels his legs trembling as he stands beside Nakamura, who looks a little confused at why he's having a nervous breakdown.

"Didn't you enter yourself in?" she asks, and he blinks hard to snap himself out of his own head.

"Oh, yeah." His voice is distant, far away from his body. "But in my defense, I was hungover."

"Ah." She grins at him. "I think we'll be good friends. After I win, of course."

"Yep, okay." He sways a little, catching himself on a nearby table of Hufflepuffs. _Sorry you have to see this, kiddos. Papa's having a bit of a panic attack right now._

He's so focused on his own plight that he almost doesn't hear the last name being called.

"And from Durmstrang, we have... Akabane Karma."

"No way." "Wasn't he expelled from Hogwarts two years ago?" "I hear he beat someone up just for looking at him." "I hear he's done the killing curse."

Nagisa finally gets a grip over himself, pinching his arm and snapping himself out of his haze. _Did he say Karma? I didn't see him around anywhere, and he's kinda hard to miss. Maybe it's a different Akabane Karma. Could be a common name in Norway, I don't know._

But one look at the confident boy striding over to the headmaster squelches all doubts about who it is. Bright red hair, cocksure smile, even the same black blazer as he wore back when he went to Hogwarts. 

_It's Karma all right. Things have officially gone loopy. Maybe this is all a fever dream or something._ He pinches himself again, but all it does is make him wince and cause Nakamura to take a step away from him. _Real life then. Okay._

If Karma hears any of the whispers, he doesn't show it. He strides down the table, joining Nagisa by the Triwizard Cup with a smile and a wave to the audience. He never wavers in his steps, which is all so Karma of him. He's never had a doubt about anything in his life. Not even leaving Hogwarts unexpectedly without giving Nagisa a second of warning.

"Hey, Nagisa," he whispers among the chaos, like no time passed at all. "It's been a while."

Nagisa can't do anything but stare. His heartrate, already dangerously fast, beats loud enough in his neck that the whole room can probably hear it. None of this, any of it, is making any sense. The emotions of hurt and confusion that he compartmentalized and stored away years ago are bursting out all at once. He can't utter a word. Hell, he can barely breathe.

"Oh, hey Karma," he hears himself say, and falls in a dead faint on the floor. _Sweet, sweet release._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shortened the title from "thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums" because it was a bit of a mouthful

#### When Nagisa opens his eyes next, he's not in the dining hall anymore.

Someone must've carried him out, because now he's lying down on some sort of couch, and he can feel a fire burning nearby. He sits up suddenly, wincing as the blood rushes to his head and makes his vision darken for a second.

When he can see clearly again, he withdraws slightly as he realizes that he's not alone in this new room. There's Headmaster Asano, staring at his watch and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. Professor Karasuma stands beside him, looking equally bored, but that might just be his usual expression.

Nakamura's standing to the side with a taller blond woman, probably her teacher, and they're both whispering in French to each other. Karma's there too, standing next to his own giant teacher and grinning at the chaos. When he sees Nagisa's up, his smile grows.

"You're awake," he says cheerily, which draws the attention of everyone in the room. There are a few other people too, but Nagisa doesn't recognize them. "Started to think you had died or something. What a way to go, though, right? Right _before_ the Triwizard Tournament."

Nagisa doesn't know how to respond to that, so it's almost fortunate that Headmaster Asano decides to speak up.

"Now that we're all _conscious,_ " he says, leering at Nagisa, "we can begin the official preparations for the Triwizard Tournament."

_Ah, right. I almost forgot about that._ Nagisa feels his head go light again, and is relieved that he's sitting down so he can steady himself. If he fainted again, he'd definitely be kicked from the tournament, magical contract and all. 

"If I may ask," the blond woman beside Nakamura interjects, "do you have an age limit for students entering the tournament? I know it isn't required, but your champion seems rather young."

Nagisa's face burns, and Karma snorts out loud. Sure, he's short for his age, but was that _really_ necessary?

"I see you still always find a way to digress, Irina," Karma's teacher says disapprovingly, and all of the attention moves to him. "Even during something as important as this, you still try and get off topic."

"Are you two familiar with each other already?" one of the other people asks, looking between the two.

"I was her teacher at Durmstrang back in the day," he explains, fixing her with a stern look. "Not that it seems she learned much." He speaks with a thick accent, but it doesn't sound Norse. The closest Nagisa can compare it to is Russian.

"It was just a question!"

"Hogwarts does indeed have an age line," Karasuma cuts in, back to the original - or more original - topic. "Only students seventeen and older could enter. We informed both schools of this before they arrived." He narrows his eyes at Irina, as if daring her to ask if Nagisa's really seventeen. He might be Nagisa’s new favorite teacher.

Before things can escalate further, Headmaster Asano stops them all with a cough.

”Your digression is forgiven, Professor Jelavic,” he says, like she’s a student who broke a minor rule. “Now if we may return to the topic at hand, I would appreciate it. We are all busy people with much to do, and I’m sure Shiota here would like to go to his room to rest soon.”

Karma snorts again, and Nagisa frowns at him. _It's been ten minutes since we've reunited and already we're back in the old pattern of things._

A new man steps forward, introducing himself as the head of the ministry Department of Magical Games and Sports. Nagisa personally feels like that's a joke job, but there are lots of things about the magical world that seem like jokes to him.

"First off, I would like to congratulate the three of you for being chosen for the honor of participating in the Triwizard Tournament," he says, which is a very roundabout way of saying _thank you for putting your name in the death cup to die possibly._ "You will make your schools very proud." _Or else._

"Now, as for the actual first challenge..." He pulls out a scroll, scribbling something down. "It will take place in three weeks, right here on the grounds in a special arena that will be set up. The nature of the challenge will remain a secret until the day before, as courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard."

Nagisa wants to laugh. _If you wanted someone brave, you should've picked a Gryffindor. The best I can do is try and sneak my way around whatever you throw at me._

"They cannot," he continues, "ask their teachers or mentors for guidance of any kind. They may only use their wands for the first challenge. Information about the second challenge will be released after the first is over."

He turns to Headmaster Asano. "That is all, isn't it? Besides for..." He trails off, but the headmaster somehow seems to know what he's referring to. A new pit is forming in Nagisa's stomach, looking between the two men, and he turns to Karma and Nakamura to see if they know what's going on. They look just as confused as he is.

"Silence the room, Professor Karasuma," he says, and the professor obliges, shooting a silencing spell on the door. No sound can escape now, if Nagisa remembers Charms class correctly. "Now onto the last matter, which cannot leave this room. You can come out now, dark lord."

Nagisa freezes at the name, grabbing for his wand instinctively. Everyone knew who the dark lord was, even if they didn't speak his name. He was always You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or just Him. Nobody destroys half of the moon and gets forgotten quickly.

The muggles are completely in the dark about everything; there's a special squadron in the department of magic dedicated to keeping an illusion of the moon for the world to see. But every wizard grows up learning the name, then learning not to say it. He hasn't been seen in years, so paranoia about where he could be runs rampant, even while people hope he's gone for good.

All of that hope was crushed in Nagisa's chest as he sees a figure emerge from the back of the room, somehow unseen throughout all of this. It cannot be considered fully a man, since the figure's skin is yellow, and where there should be a nose on its face, there is only smooth skin. The dark lord walks purposefully, confidently, to the center of the room, almost inviting someone to hex him.

Which all of the adults immediately move to do. There are seven beams of different color spells shot at him instantly, and Nagisa fumbles to use his own wand to help. _The dark lord is here. In the same room as me. For some reason._

When the dust settles, he's shocked to see that not only is the dark lord fine, but he's also now drinking a cup of tea.

"You were so slow, I apparated out and got myself a nice mug of tea," he explains, sitting down on a stool. "I was growing rather parched with all of this talking going on."

"That's impossible," Nagisa croaks, speaking up for the first time in the whole meeting. "You can't apparate in Hogwarts. There are special spells making it impossible."

The dark lord winks at him. "Impossible to you, maybe, but it's as easy to me as walking out." He turns to the headmaster, taking a long sip. "Can I give my introduction now, or would you rather do it yourself?"

"Go right ahead," Headmaster Asano says, looking a little green. A billion thoughts are swarming Nagisa's head, but the one that's sticking out now is _Headmaster Asano invited the dark lord to our school. He knew he was coming, so he's definitely working with him. I have to tell the minister, or maybe the head of defense. Is there a magical army I can call?_

He looks at Karasuma, usually the voice of reason, but he doesn't even look surprised. None of the adults do, in fact. He, Karma, and Nakamura seem to be the only ones in the dark about this.

"Hello Triwizard Tournament participants," the dark lord says cheerfully, like this is a meet and greet or a casual Sunday brunch. "You probably know me as the dark lord, but feel free to call me Koro-sensei. That's the name I'm choosing to go by now. On second thought, call me Professor Koro-sensei, since I will be your teacher for the next few months, after all."

Karma chooses this moment to speak up. "Maybe I'm missing something, Professor," he says to his teacher, "but why the fuck is the dark lord here in front of us, and why aren't you all arresting him? Also who the fuck gave him a teaching license?" Despite his strong language, his tone remains light and pleasant. Karma, despite how aggressive he can be, never loses his temper outwardly. Every jab or physical blow, he delivers with serenity.

"Language, Karma," his teacher reprimands him. "And you can let Koro-sensei explain everything to you."

"Thank you, Professor Lovro," the dark lord says. "As for your questions, Mr. Akabane, I can answer them all easily. I'm here as your third challenge, and I'm also here as your defense against the dark arts teacher." _That's ironic, since you_ are _the dark arts,_ Nagisa thinks, but doesn't say aloud. "Simply put, your government isn't arresting me because they physically can't. I'm too powerful for them."

"No need to rub it in," the head of magical games says sourly, but the dark lord ignores him.

"You three, and you three alone, will be my students for the next few months, and I will teach you how to kill me. Teaching is my passion, after all. Your third challenge will be to kill me, and you have all the way until the end of the year to do it, even before the other tasks, if you can pull it off."

"Excuse me, but if the adults with more experience can't kill you, how will we?" Nakamura asks, proper and polite. "We're only kids."

"Ah, but the cup chose you, so you must be special," the dark lord responds. "Plus, you'll have my guidance and knowledge. This is top secret stuff, you know. You should be honored."

_I must be special? It was a roll of the dice. The cup chose me randomly, horribly, and now I'm stuck here with the dark lord._ Nagisa stares at the neon yellow man, creature, dark lord. Koro-sensei, although that definitely isn't his real name.

"And what happens if we can't kill you?" he hears himself ask. "What if none of us can do it before the end of the year?"

"That's another simple question," the dark lord says, and Nagisa can see Professor Karasuma shift uncomfortably. "I destroy the planet, along with everyone on it. No pressure, though."

Nagisa _almost_ faints for a second time, but manages to shake the wooziness away quickly enough to see Karma pull out his wand in one swift motion, extending it right at the dark lord. 

"Alright then," Karma says, upbeat as ever. "Avada Kedavra!" 

Everyone ducks away as he shoots the killing curse at the dark lord, and Nagisa hears someone yell. It might be him; it isn't clear in the moment.

"Nice try, Mr. Akabane," the dark lord says, alive as ever and now munching on a scone when they look up. "The regular killing curse doesn't work on me, of course. You think too low of me if you think one shot can get to me."

Karma stares at him, slack jawed. "Call me Karma," he says weakly. "And if the regular killing curse can't hurt you, what can?"

"Excellent question, and that'll be our first lesson tomorrow!" the dark lord says, and disappears with a snap of his fingers. The whole room stares at the empty space where he was. Karma's wand is still outstretched, his mouth still agape.

"Well," the head of magical games says awkwardly, clearing his throat. "Now that you've been acquainted with Koro-sensei, you must make a magical oath not to tell anyone. This is of national importance, after all. All it will do is stop you from saying or doing anything that will hint to the presence of the dark lord in this school. Any questions?"

Nagisa has a million questions, most of them consisting of the words _what the actual hell,_ but he follows numbly along as the man shows them how to make a magical oath. They join hands, say some words, and a burst of warmth shoots through Nagisa. Weird, but not unpleasant. 

_Time to fully internalize this. You are in the Triwizard Tournament. The dark lord is now your teacher. You have to kill him. Otherwise the world will end._ He wonders how completely and thoroughly this whole experience will mess him up. By his best estimations, very much.

"If there is nothing more, you may all head out," Headmaster Asano says, back to his unaffected expression. "Professor Jelavic, Professor Lovro, you may return tomorrow with your champions at 3pm for their class with the dark lord. If you wish to stay with them, you are more than welcome, although I will say that many precautions have been taken to ensure the students' safety."

"What kind of precautions are we talking about?" Professor Jelavic asks.

"Koro-sensei made his own magical oath to not do any harm to the students," Professor Karasuma says. "If he breaks it, he dies."

"Says who? The killing curse can't even kill him."

"From the research we did, we thought up a new type of curse that can only kill him," a new voice says, and everyone turns to see a man cloaked in white stepping forward. His face is completely covered, save for his eyes, which glint in the firelight eerily. "I've been brought in especially to keep the dark lord in line."

"And who are you?" Professor Lovro asks, raising an eyebrow. "You aren't familiar to me."

"I'm Shiro, and I used to work with the dark lord before he became the way he is." _"The way he is"? Is he talking about him being yellow, or the nose thing, or just the dark lord in general?_ "While I can't kill him myself, I can certainly assist the three of you in doing so."

"That's vague," Karma mutters under his breath, and Headmaster Asano snaps his head in his direction.

"Mr. Akabane, always a pleasure to see you," he says, meaning the exact opposite. "I would urge you to refrain from using the killing curse again, or any of the unforgivable curses. I'm only excusing it this time because of the extenuating circumstances, but it won't be overlooked again."

"Will I be expelled again?" Nagisa holds his breath, locking eyes with Nakamura. She's not used to Karma's insanity yet, but she will be soon if they're going to have a class together. Karma and trouble go together like white on rice.

"From Durmstrang, yes," Professor Lovro says sternly. "Behave, Karma." Nagisa holds back a snort. _Like that's ever stopped him from doing anything._

"Everything seems to be settled, so you are all dismissed," the headmaster says, and no one fights him on this. They're all just as exhausted as Nagisa is, except most of them aren't expected to _fight the dark lord and actually kill him._

"Good night, Nagisa," Karma says, waving as he walks away with Lovro. "You too, Nakamura."

"See you guys tomorrow," Nakamura calls, trailing behind Irina. 

"Yeah, see you," Nagisa says weakly, still sitting on the couch. He pushes himself to his feet, looking from Karasuma to the headmaster to the head of magical games, then settling on Shiro. In the shadows, with his face obscured, he almost seems more menacing than the dark lord. Which is ridiculous, given he's _the dark lord,_ but Nagisa can't shake the uneasy feeling away.

"Good night," he says to the group, and starts out the door.

"Good luck, Shiota," the headmaster says with a bit of an edge to his soft voice. The _you'll need it_ is implied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah professor koro-sensei is like saying professor mr. koro, but just professor koro sounded weird to me so i left koro-sensei the way it was


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Semblance of Sanity, who are my FAVORITE anime reaction youtubers, just started watching assclass. They're on episode 2, they post once a week, and they are GREAT. Highly recommend watching them if you have the time and also want to see other people go through the same pain you did at the end :)

#### When Nagisa reaches the Slytherin dorms, he finds that a party's in full swing, which isn't so out of the ordinary.

Lately, the Slytherin attitude has been less _blood purity_ and more _everyone hates us anyways so we might as well drink and live our best lives_. Sure, they're all still Purebloods, but that's more out of tradition than anything. Only Terasaka's gang ever mentions blood purity or anything like that, and Kataoka usually scolds them back into line.

It's only when Nagisa spots the hastily made **Congratulations Nagisa!** banner in the common room that he realizes it's for him. Everyone cheers as he walks in, mostly people from his year, and they crowd around him in a moving tangle of bodies. Someone charmed a music box to play, and there's definitely a muffling charm on the room to keep them from being reported. Not that there's much reporting in the Slytherin house: they, at least, know how to not snitch.

"Dude, I can't believe you got chosen," Yoshida says, handing him a shot. Nagisa sniffs it; just as he suspected, more firewhiskey. _I'm never drinking that stuff again, for sure._ He hands it back as gracefully as he can, mustering up what he hopes is a smile.

"You realize that makes you the greatest Slytherin in our house, right?" Maehara adds. "Even if you passed out a second later."

"Hey, we're not focusing on that," Fuwa interrupts. "You're still our champion. This'll be one hell of a tournament. You should've seen Gakushuu's face, he was practically purple."

 _Yeah, one hell of a tournament when I get my ass handed to me in front of everyone._ He starts to think that maybe he should've taken the shot after all. Nothing bad could happen from forgetting everything for a little while. 

He spots Kayano near the edge of the group and pushes his way towards her. She immediately wraps her arms around him, then checks him for any type of injury. 

"We were all worried when they carried you away," she says. "I thought they would take you to the infirmary, but Karasuma-sensei went in the other direction and I tried to follow but they spotted me and told me I'd get detention if I was caught again." Her words, as always, come out in a torrent. "But we're glad you're alright."

"Yeah, really looks like everyone was worrying," Nagisa says, gesturing to the party around him. "Wasn't Firewhiskey Friday just a few days ago?"

"This is a celebration, not just an excuse to get drunk," Kayano says with a bit of an eye roll. "Look, even Kataoka's here!" Indeed, the tall girl is talking to Isogai in the corner, holding a cup of what Nagisa hopes is water. He doesn't want to be blamed if Kataoka ever joins them on the dark side.

"Well, uh, thanks," Nagisa says, because even though he wants nothing more than to go right to bed, he appreciates the effort. Slytherins celebrate and stand up for each other. He's not getting a party from any of the other houses, that's for sure. "I think I'll head off now-"

"Noooo, don't go already," Kayano pleads. "You just got here. Plus, I think Kanzaki's getting a cake from the kitchens. You know how the house elves like her better than the rest of us."

"She is the nicest one out of us," Nagisa reminds her. "Comes from a Hufflepuff family and everything. You're a close second, though." He looks longingly towards the room to his dorm, then sighs. "I'll stay until the cake comes."

"Great!" Kayano says trumphantly, her smile the picture example of a Slytherin smirk. There's a reason she's in Slytherin, just like the rest of them. People often group her and Nagisa together in the _too meek to possibly be Slytherin_ category, but those are people who don't know either of them very well. "I'm guessing no drink for you?"

"Is there water here?" His throat is dry, probably since he didn't get to drink anything since dinner. "And yeah, I think I'll be sober forever from now on. It'll save me a lot of trouble."

"I'll get you some," she says, ignoring his other comment. She leaves him alone by the armchairs, but he isn't alone for long. He sees them in his periphery first, lingering on the edges, and he turns to see who it is. It's a face that shouldn't look so comfortable in the Slytherin dorms, but fits right in.

"Karma." The redhead raises his eyebrows, as if to say _that's me, what are you gonna do about it?_ "What- How did you get in here? _Why_ are you here?"

"Nothing too complicated," Karma says, settling in the chair beside him. Since they're right on the edge of the room, it seems no one else spotted him yet, since there's no screaming and/or pointing. "To get out of the ship was a little hard, since it's underwater, but I made a bubble-head charm and swam out when no one else was looking. I paid my friend a couple of galleons to drink some polyjuice potion to look like me, so that even if they do look for me, they won't know I'm gone."

He doesn't seem to realize that the rest of the room is slowly going silent as more and more people take notice of him. Nagisa wants to tap him on the arm and let him know, but Karma probably wouldn't care anyway. 

"Then," he continues, "it wasn't too hard to get into the castle, since security here sucks. The castle recognizes me as a guest, so it let me right in. I charmed my footsteps to be silent, went down to the dungeon, and here I am." He looks around, his grin growing. "Well this is a nice welcome. Seems everyone's here to greet me."

The only noise in the room is the music box, still playing something jazzy. Nagisa still has more questions, so he ignores everyone else for now. "But how did you get in the common room? Did you steal the password or something?"

"Geez, Nagisa, you think so low of me," he says with a sniff, mock serious for a second before his smile returns. "I blackmailed the painting into letting me in. It remembered me from a few years ago, but I had to make sure it wouldn't report me." He looks past Nagisa to Terasaka, who's holding a bottle of strong smelling liquid. "Is that for me? You're too kind."

"Knock yourself out," Terasaka says, apparently too stunned to snark at Karma like he always used to. Karma pours a generous amount of firewhisky into a plastic cup, at least three quarters full, and starts drinking it like apple juice.

"That's a _lot,_ " Kimura says, eyes wide. Karma finishes the cup, crushing it in his hand and tossing it in the trash. His face, while slightly pinker at the edges, remains sharp and alert.

"In Durmstrang we drink firewhiskey like it's water," he says with a smirk. "I don't drink more than I can handle. And to answer your second question, Nagisa, I came here for a party. I knew you guys would be having one, of course, and nobody on the Durmstrang ship thought to bring firewhiskey with them. They're all terribly competitive too, so They probably wouldn't share even if they did."

Nagisa suddenly remembers that it was _Karma_ who started Firewhiskey Friday Nights back in fifth year. He was the hedonist out of them, the _fuck them all, we'll do what we want_ type that spurred their weekly acts of rebellion. 

"Well," Isogai says, looking between Karma and Nagisa. "Welcome back."

* * *

The party continues like before, with the addition of Karma in their ranks. It's a little awkward at first, with him having left without a warning, but he's the poster child for Slytherin and settles right back in. Everyone wants to know what Durmstrang is like, what Norway's like, what he's been doing for the past two years.

"You know, the Durmstrang house system is a lot better than here," he says at one point, sitting on the edge of a table with his feet propped up. "They don't have them. You just dorm with the people your age, and the dorms are all equally nice. No sticking anyone in the dungeon or separating people based on if they're smart or brave or sneaky or other. I mean, what a big mistake on the school's part, putting all the sneaky people together in one dorm. Salazar was one hell of a guy."

At one point, Yada asks him why he was expelled in the first place, and that seems to be the one thing he won't run his mouth about.

"If you wanna get out of Hogwarts so bad, just leave normally," he says instead. "Being expelled is a hell of a hassle, I'll tell you that."

Nagisa, meanwhile, stays in his corner with Kayano and Sugino, glad that the attention is anywhere but on him. He doesn't know how Karma does it: going wherever he wants without thinking of the consequences, making himself the center of anywhere he goes. It's probably the reason he wasn't sent to Ravenclaw, even though he was definitely one of the smartest kids in their school. Ravenclaws learn for the sake of learning; Slytherins only learn as much as they need to know to get their way.

"Feels weird that Karma's back, right?" Sugino says, sober tonight because he has Quidditch practice tomorrow. "It's like he never left."

"Mmm," Nagisa agrees, looking at him through half-lidded eyes. He didn't drink a drop, but he's still beat, drained after everything that happened during the day. He wants to walk off to bed, but he doesn't want to draws attention to himself. "Weird."

"Did you know that he was coming here?" Kayano asks, and Nagisa shakes his head. You'd think, since they were best friends for years and all, that Karma would've given him a heads up, but no. Despite anything he said before, Nagisa's just another Slytherin to him now.

He leans further back, sinking into the cushions. The candlelight is blurring in his vision, and he puts his water on the floor beside him as a precaution. He thinks about heading to bed, everyone else be damned, but closes his eyes before he can do so. _Hopefully they won't draw on my face. I'm pretty sure they're taking pictures of the champions tomorrow._

He wakes up to the dizzying feeling of being lifted in the air. He blinks rapidly, looking around him. He's being carried off, probably to his room. Sugino's supporting him under the arms, and when he checks to see who's carrying his feet, it's none other than the man of the hour himself, Karma.

"What's he doing?" he hisses to Sugino, as quietly as he can. Karma still hears, though, but doesn't look offended. Nagisa's never seen him offended before in all the years he's known him.

"You fell asleep, so I offered to help Sugino take you out," he says with a beam. "I probably could've done it myself, too. You weigh less than my backpack."

"You can put me down now," Nagisa says, now both disoriented and embarrassed. "I'm awake, I can walk."

"We're almost there," Sugino, the traitor, says, and he and Karma continue to haul Nagisa like a canoe until they reach his room. Karma doesn't ask which bed is his, so he probably still remembers from fifth year. They dump him unceremoniously on top, and he immediately sits up, arms crossed. 

"Thank you," he says with a bit of a bite, pulling his shoes off. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Sugino, seeing the look in his eyes, quickly turns to go. He'll probably apologize at breakfast, waiting for Nagisa to cool off first, and Nagisa appreciates it. He _doesn't_ appreciate Karma sitting himself on the edge of his bed, staring at him with his weirdly golden eyes that always seem to reflect the light like a cat's.

"Were we in a fight before I left?" he asks, not looking away. "Because my memory is spectacular and I don't remember you being mad at me before I left."

"I wasn't." Nagisa hates being mad, being petty, but his words are coming out sparingly, hard as bullets.

"So I did something to upset you since I came back." He's still not blinking. Nagisa looks away first, staring at his folded arms. "You've been cross with me all day. You barely even spoke to me at your own party, besides to interrogate me."

"What is there to say? We _were_ friends, you disappeared, you never wrote to me, and now you're back." He counts these off on his fingers, meeting Karma's eyes again. "If you want a do-over then I can give you that, but I can't just go back to the way things were. Especially since you still won't say why you left in the first place."

Karma is silent for a minute, but his gaze never wavers. His usual smirk isn't present either, but he doesn't look hurt or angry or sad. Instead, he looks curious, although about what, Nagisa couldn't begin to guess.

"I can do a do-over," he says, pushing himself to his feet. Nagisa quashes the pang of disappointment he feels at how quickly Karma decides this. _I'm the one who gave him the option. I should've expected it._ "If it'll get you to talk to me like normal again, sure. I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."

"See you," Nagisa echoes, but it sound hollow. He watches Karma step out, shutting the door behind him, and he hears everyone ask what took him so long.

"Just talking to Nagisa," Karma says, his voice muffled through the door. "I better get back now, before the potion wears off, but this was great. Even seeing you, Terasaka, I've missed your grumpy face."

"Shut up," Terasaka says, but he doesn't sound genuinely angry. "You haven't changed a bit since fifth year."

"You can take a guy from Slytherin, but you can't take the Slytherin from a guy," Karma replies. "Hope to be back by Friday for more of this. I'll pay my share, don't worry. And don't give me that look, Isogai, you know I'm responsible."

"We all know you can get back in here if you want to," Okajima says, and they all laugh. Nagisa hears the clinks of a few shotglasses, and he turns over in his bed. _Sounds like he's having fun. Like no time passed at all._

Except time did pass, and people do change. The Karma that Nagisa knew, for instance, didn't fire off killing curses like he was ordering breakfast. He wonders what happened to him, not only to get expelled but also what happened over the years. 

He wonders if he'll ever find out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the dealio: there are death eaters here, but they're followers of koro-sensei who want to cause chaos like he does. Koro-sensei doesn't know/care about them, and doesn't really associate with them. There are still purebloods/half bloods/muggleborns, and there's still discrimination, but that's irrelevant to the death eater thing. I feel the need to clarify this even though it's kinda unrelated to this chapter. It'll be important later


	4. Chapter 4

#### Nagisa wakes up the next morning not hungover, although he might as well be given how completely exhausted he is.

Last night already feels like a dream, but as he passes through the common room - still littered with plastic cups and a few snoring Slytherins - he knows it isn't. _Karma came to the party. Karma carried me to bed. Karma wants a redo._

Well... what else is there to do, really? In any case, he has more important things to worry about. _Triwizard Tournament. School Champion. Dark Lord._

He shakes Sugino awake and they wait for Kayano to get ready before they head down to breakfast. Nagisa hopes that everyone settled down about everything overnight, but judging by the room-wide stares he receives when he walks in, no dice. Even the teacher's table is staring at him, and Headmaster Asano's attention is especially piercing.

The Slytherins are cheering, which is nice, but they're also barely above talking volume. _Hungover. Definitely._

"I think I'll start taking my breakfast in the common room," Nagisa mumbles, taking a small bite of toast. 

"Don't let them win," Kayano urges him. "You're our champion, they'll warm up to you soon."

"Or they'll all start cheering for Beauxbatons. I wouldn't put it past Asano."

Asano, the boy in question, is currently debating aloud whether the Goblet of Fire could have actually been tampered with by one of the Slytherins. 

"I mean, let's consider it thoroughly," he says, and his voice clearly travels all the way down to the Slytherin table. "Doesn't the fact that the cup chose two people who were Slytherins at one point, one of whom was actually expelled from Hogwarts, seem a little suspicious? I wouldn't assume that someone from a house of delinquents would be the best representative of their school, but what do I know?"

"Nothing as always, Asano," Karma chimes in from his table with a catty smile. "Jealous isn't a good look on you, by the way. Neither is incompetence, but you're probably used to that one by now."

"Speak of the devil," Asano drawls, although his face is significantly more pink. "In the most literal sense. Are you here to deny anything I just said? You _were_ a Slytherin, and you _were_ expelled."

"I'm _here_ to eat breakfast," Karma replies. "You're just as much of a control freak now as you were two years ago, _Gakushuu,_ and a bigoted one at that. For a scrawny little nobody, you sure have a voice on you."

The whole dining hall is dead silent. Nagisa doesn't realize he's holding his breath until Sugino elbows him in the side.

"Good old Karma, right?" he says in an undertone. "Guess he still puts himself on 'make Asano's life miserable' duty." Nagisa nods, but doesn't look away from Karma. He's sitting on the edge of his table, legs crossed in front of him, while the rest of his table looks on wearily. His teacher looks like he's saying something, but Karma only nods and smiles wider.

Before Asano can reply, Headmaster Asano steps in. 

"Akabane, while I cannot take house points away from you anymore, that doesn't excuse you to act any which way you wish. I'm sure Professor Lovro will be more than happy to discipline you in whichever way he deems fit." The look he gives Lovro says _and you will discipline him, or else._ "And I don't know if you've forgotten, but here at Hogwarts, we don't sit on tables like savages."

He turns to his son, who's looking triumphant at the ass-beating Karma just got from the headmaster. "And Asano, five points from Gryffindor for instigating an argument. That is all."

The dining hall returns to its normal level of chatter, albeit a little more cautious. Asano doesn't speak up again, which is a relief, although Nagisa gets even more dirty looks now that before. _I'm not the reason they lost points._

"If it were one of us who talked back to Asano, we'd get at least thirty points off," Hazame says moodily. "We don't even really have points yet and we'd still lose that many."

"If it were another Gryffindor, he wouldn't take any points off at all," Fuwa adds. "He tries really hard to make it look like he doesn't favor Asano over everyone else, but he doesn't care that he always puts Gryffindor first. It's off."

"At least Asano got what was coming," Itona says. "Did Karma always used to fight with him?"

"That's right, you just came last year," Takebayashi says. "You weren't there for any of Karma and Asano's crazy battles throughout school. They always received the top grades in every class, so they competed over those."

"Not to mention that they were both Quidditch seekers," Sugaya adds. "Every time they faced each other, they had to bring in a special referee because they were too fast to follow normally."

"Karma probably could've been a prefect like Asano, but he ditches too much class, so I got it instead," Isogai explains. "Any competition there was in the school, they went head to head. Someone started a scoreboard for their wins, but we got rid of it after the... expulsion."

"One hundred forty seven Karma, one hundred forty eight Asano," Hayami murmurs. "It was pretty evenly matched."

"And they were totally hooking up on the side," Okajima interjects, and Kataoka hits him on the head with a bread roll.

"Don't spread rumors, it's rude." She turns to Itona again. " _Allegedly_ they were hooking up on the side, but no one had any proof. A second year asked Asano about it once, and the next day he was gone."

"If anyone would know about it, it's Nagisa," Maehara says with a smirk, “But he won’t say a word about it either way.”

”I told you guys, he never told me anything about it,” Nagisa says, cheeks burning. In reality, he had been too nervous about Karma’s reaction to ever ask. He’s glad that they’re talking about something other than the tournament, though, even if he feels a little guilty about gossiping.

Unfortunately, the lot of them must have understated how dangerous Karma could be, or maybe they underestimated Itona’s ability to give a shit. Because before Terasaka can slap a hand over his mouth, Itona calls out to the redhead himself.

”Karma, c’mere. We want to ask you something.”

Karma had been eating his breakfast, mostly settled down after being called out by the headmaster, but he perks up again at his name. He approaches the table slowly, meandering a little. Karma doesn’t rush anywhere, never has.

This gives the rest of the seventh year Slytherins enough time to knock Itona in the head, mourn his death, and accept that he was a good kid while he was alive. Itona doesn’t look afraid yet, but he seems wary. He should be.

”What is it, new kid?” Karma asks, leaning an elbow on the table. His eyes stray to Nagisa for a second, who only raises his eyebrows and eats more of his toast.

”Did you ever hook up with Asano?” Itona asks, a boy with a death wish. The air around the table suddenly loses all oxygen.

Karma raises an eyebrow, studying the bandanna’d boy before him. Like a fox appraising his favorite chicken.

”Who wants to know?” he finally asks, eyes dead set on Itona’s. “You’re not my type.” Karma doesn’t bother with ‘no offense.’ He never has.

Itona looks like he finally realizes the danger he’s in. A weaker person would crumble, but Itona is as tough as it gets. Instead of disintegrating into a billion tiny particles, he scans the table, trying to find the safest person to pin it on.

It happens in slow motion. His eyes meet, then settle on Nagisa’s. Nagisa shakes his head. Itona blinks.

”Nagisa,” he says, clear as day. “He’s the one who brought it up. The rest of us were just curious about it after.”

Karma’s head swivels back to Nagisa, but this time, it stays there. He’s smiling, wide and full of teasing. He knows it’s a lie, but damn if he’s going to give it up.

”Nagisa, huh.” It’s not a question. “Well for Nagisa’s sake I’ll say that whatever might’ve happened, it’s not going on anymore.” He winks, the bastard, and walks back to his table, never a step too quick.

When Nagisa’s eyes come back into focus, Yoshida has Itona in a headlock and Muramatsu has his bandanna in his fist.

”You’re evil,” Terasaka remarks, although he’s laughing under his breath. “Pinning it on Nagisa like that? You barely missed being killed.”

”That’s what I was going for,” Itona replies, grabbing blindly for his bandanna but missing. “Sorry for using you, Nagisa. Even though I think I can take him, I wasn’t looking for a fight.”

”At least you’re honest,” Nagisa sighs. He sneaks a glance over at Karma, but the other boy catches it and smiles again, whispering something to the boy next to him. Nagisa doesn’t want to know what he says.

Okay, maybe he wants to know _a little._ But not that much. _So much for a do over._

Breakfast ends, and he heads off to Transfiguration, his first class. It’s a class they share with the Ravenclaws, and while they’re better than the Gryffindors, they don’t have a nice look to give him. Kayano tries to comfort him by reminding him that he doesn’t have to take finals. It’s hard to think positively after getting two essays to write due the next week.

Charms with the Hufflepuffs. They’re the nice house, supposedly, although the Slytherins have never really been in the receiving end of that kindness. Besides for Norita, who always has a smile for Nagisa, they’re overall ignored.

Potions with the Gryffindors. Asano is quieter than usual, but his cronies are just as loud spoken as always.

”Where’s Karma to defend your honor now?” Glasses Crony taunts, and Nagisa blinks at him tiredly. He’s too tired to even be really offended.

When he’s dismissed for lunch, Nagisa wants nothing more than to relax in the common room and maybe take a nap. But before he can do so, Professor Karasuma motions him over to the side.

”Take a plate of food and follow me,” he says under his breath. “You have your first class with Koro-sensei.”

Nagisa freezes. _Why is there so much happening at once? Between the tournament and the Karma and the other houses, there’s barely any room left for the dark lord._

He returns to the table to get his lunch, much shakier than before, and Kayano asks, "Where are you going?"

"I have Triwizard Tournament stuff," he answers, wishing he could tell her everything about the insanity that was his life now. "I'm pretty sure it'll be every day. Just another way to drag me down."

"Cheer up, champ," she says, putting a baked potato on his tray. "Every second you're there is another slap in Asano's face. Plus, you can catch up with Karma now." _That's precisely what I'm_ not _in the mood to do, Kayano!_

"See you in class," he says with a weak smile, and follows Professor Karasuma down the hallway. 

"We charmed a classroom to be soundproof, and hidden to everyone who doesn't know the spell," he explains, leading Nagisa up one flight of moving stairs and then down another. "Koro-sensei also helped with some of the charms, as annoying as it was to listen to his orders-"

"Are you alright with this, professor?" Nagisa interrupts, staring up at his tired face. "Sending three high schoolers to deal with the strongest dark wizard in history? That doesn't bother you at all?" Karma might be rubbing off on him, or maybe the circumstances are bringing out the worst in him. Either way, he's more than a little fed up.

Karasuma sighs. "Nagisa, I don't know what to tell you. When the dark lord tells you something, you do it. This is the easiest way of keeping him within reach. Rest assured, you three are not the only ones we have on the mission to assassinate him."

They reach a small corridor, and Karasuma taps his wand a few times against the wall and whispers something. Immediately, the wall turns to a door, and the two of them step inside, shutting the door behind them.

Everyone else, it seems, is already there. Nakamura with her French teacher, Karma with his tall one, and _him._ The dark lord. The one who Nagisa's mother valued above her own son, the one she gave her freedom up to serve when he never gave her the light of day.

Him. He's their teacher.

"Mr. Shiota, right on time!" the dark lord exclaims, motioning for him to sit down. He takes the seat in the middle, between Karma and Nakamura. "I'll give you a few minutes to eat, and then we'll start on our first lesson."

"Call me Nagisa," he hears himself say. "Everyone does." He doesn't want to be on first name terms with the dark lord, but at the same time, the fake respect feels weirder. "Why are you going to destroy the earth?"

"Ohoho, and here I was thinking Karma here was the one who asked the difficult questions," the dark lord chuckles. "To that, Nagisa, I say, does it matter? If you do your job right, I won't be around to destroy it."

Karma and Nakamura are both staring at him. Must be due to the fact that every limb in his body is trembling. "Can I ask you another question, Koro-sensei?" The name feels wrong too, anything but "the dark lord" feels like not enough, but what the dark lord says, goes. 

"Sure thing, Nagisa."

He doesn't like it when he says his name. He regrets giving him any name at all.

"Do you remember any of your followers?" He continues before he can say anything. "Like Shiota Hiromi. Do you remember her?"

The dark lord's expression doesn't change. "I'm not sure, Nagisa. I haven't met any of my so called followers. Until I came here, I didn't know they existed."

"Well, she's my mother. And she's in Azkaban because of you." _Why am I so defensive of a woman who never really cared for me? Why am I trying to protect her when she never did the same back?_ "You left your followers all to be arrested, and I know you're evil but shouldn't evil people care for their followers too?" 

He doesn't know what he's arguing. He never supported anything about the dark lord. He knows that his followers deserve to be in Azkaban, even, yes, his mother. Maybe especially her, after all the havoc she wreaked. But looking at his smiling face, untouchable, while she's rotting in a jail cell, feels like a personal blow. 

He stands up abruptly, his chair clattering against the hardwood floor. "May I be excused, Professor Karasuma?" he asks, turning away from the yellow creature in front of him. "I need a moment."

"I'll have to escort you," Karasuma says after a short pause, and Nagisa feels his face twist up. _I need time alone, just a little._

Karma, his godsend, his worst enemy, pipes up, "I can walk him. Professor Lovro already told me the spell, so I can walk him back."

"Lovro, you were supposed to keep it a secret," Nakamura's teacher says. "How scandalous."

"Like you didn't do the same for your champion," Lovro sniffs. 

"Alright, you two can go," Karasuma says, checking his watch. "If you're not back in five minutes, I'm tracking you both down, and it'll be ten points from Slytherin."

"I'll take it," Nagisa says, because his chest is clamping up and he doesn't know how much more talking he can do. "Thank you."

The walk to the bathroom is uncharacteristically quiet. Nagisa doesn't talk much unprompted, but even Karma, the king of starting random conversations, is silent. He stands by the door when Nagisa walks in, waiting outside.

"You look like you need some you time," he says simply, and Nagisa nods gratefully. He walks into a stall, shuts the door, sits down on the closed seat, and stares at the ceiling. He's not crying, he's freaking seventeen years old, but his head hurts like he's crying anyway. 

After a few minutes, he can't delay anymore. 

_Alright, Nagisa, here's what you're going to do. You're going to walk in, sit down, and not say anything. You'll be respectful to the dark lord, but not talk more than necessary. You will find out his weaknesses, and you will record anything you find that might help you kill him. And when the time comes, you will be the one to end his life, and everyone else will be the better for it._

"Took you long enough," Karma says when he walks out. "Thought you might've drowned or something."

Instead of huffing like he usually does, Nagisa smiles. "Thanks for waiting. Better you than Professor Karasuma."

He's giving Karma a do-over, and that means not getting cross with him whenever he makes a joke. He knows that it's just the way he talks, and he never means anything bad by it when he's talking to him.

Karma looks surprised, and a little pleased. "Is there a strip club in there or something? Not sure what else could've improved your mood that quick. If so, I want in."

"Get your head out of the gutter," Nagisa says loftily, and they reach the wall again. "What's the spell?"

"Occultatum." The doorway reappears, and Karma opens the door for him. "After you."

The whole room seems wary of him when he returns to his seat, like he might explode and storm out again. Even the dark lord pauses in his writing to look at him.

"Are you feeling better, Nagisa?" he asks, and Nagisa doesn't flinch at his name this time.

"Never better, Koro-sensei," he responds, and takes out a new notebook.

**Dark lord weakness #1: cares too much about other people.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I created a rare Angery Nagisa by mistake. There was a lot of angry nagisa so far but he'll be in a better mood soon. Being entered into the Triwizard Tournament with your ex-best friend and having to face a super powerful dark wizard will do that for you
> 
> also occultatum just means "hidden". bless you, english to latin google translate


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hibernated for a hot sec but now i'm back awake (for now). school has started.brain is tired. i dont remember why i missed it lmao

#### Nagisa had a lot of expectations for his first lesson with the dark lord. He did not expect a Charms lesson almost identical to the one he had had earlier in the day.

"Now then," the dark lord starts, picking up a piece of chalk. "There are two spells that are known to damage me. Excindo is the first one you'll learn, and Contreo is the second. They're both simple spells, so you should pick them up quickly. You seem like a bright bunch."

"If it's that easy, why hasn't anyone killed you set?" Karma asks, fiddling with his wand. "They should have Aurors on you 24/7 just shooting spells at you until you die."

"No offense taken, Karma," the dark lord says cheerily. "And to that, I say that I'm too fast. Even if they line up the perfect shot to kill me, I'll just dodge it." His face, usually plain yellow, now has green stripes across it. Nagisa writes that down. _Mood ring?_ "Repeat after me: Ex-cin-do."

"Excindo," the three of them repeat. Karma reaches for his wand, but his teacher stops him with a stern look. _He must be used to dealing with him. I wonder how he feels about him, really._ All of the teachers at Hogwarts either loved Karma for his grades, or hated him for the fact that he barely went to class and caused destruction wherever he went. Most of them hated him, really, but it never fazed him. He knew he could get the grades to get his dream job, Minister of Magic.

Karma as the Minister. Nagisa suppresses a shudder.

When the dark lord is satisfied with their pronunciation - "You can never be too careful with magic!" - they practice their wand movements. Swish up, then directly pointed at the target.

"The spell can't damage anything other than me, so it's perfectly safe to practice indoors," he explains. "Still, if you change just one emphasis on a syllable or a bit of a movement, you could end up collapsing the whole room on us."

"Wouldn't that be good for you?" Nakamura asks. "Since we're trying to kill you and all?"

The dark lord puts a hand to his face like he's scandalized at the notion. "Nakamura, you should be ashamed! As your teacher I would never want you to be hurt in any way. If it looks like you're in danger, it's my responsibility to save you from it!"

"How noble," Karma whispers, and Nagisa huffs a laugh.

Finally, they get to actually try the spell out on him.

"Now don't hold back," the dark lord reminds them. "I won't-"

He's cut off by a stream of red light coming right at him, leading back to Karma's wand. Nagisa knows that it couldn't be that easy to kill him, but he still feels a pang of disappointment when the dark lord reappears a second later, looking frazzled.

"It's not nice to cut people off when they're talking, Karma," he reprimands, "but I do like your spirit. Nagisa, Nakamura, try it out."

Charms isn't Nagisa's strong suit, but he shuts his eyes and tries to remember the spell. _Excindo. Up and point._ He looks up at the dark lord, stares into his beady black eyes, and fires. 

He misses by a mile, of course. His aim isn't that great, especially in high pressure situations. But the rush of magic still gives him a giddy feeling, and for the first time all day, he feels like he's doing something important.

"Nice shot, Nagisa," Karma says, and Nagisa scowls at him. "I'm serious, it was a good spell! I swear, nobody ever takes what I say seriously."

"Maybe it's because you're always sarcastic," Nakamura suggests, shooting off another spell at the dark lord. "Also your face totally screams 'I'm making fun of everything about you in my head'."

"That's pretty accurate, actually," Nagisa laughs. "It might be why he fights so much with Asano. They both have the same face."

"I do _not._ Mine is much better looking than his."

"I dunno, man," Nakamura says. "I just met the guy but he has a total pretty boy thing going on. He's evil, right? He gives off those vibes."

"Totally," Nagisa agrees. "He's the principal's son, so he's kinda..." He tries to think of a single word that could fully encompass Asano's unique brand of snottiness. 

"A bitch," Karma chimes in, and the two of them nod in agreement. 

"So did you two actually hook up?" she asks without hesitation, much like Itona had at breakfast. At least she struck up a conversation with him first. Nagisa isn't too worried about her being in danger or pinning it all on him. The question still makes his neck heat up, though.

"That really is the question of the day, huh," Karma grins. "I'll say... no comment. For the sake of Nagisa's virgin ears."

"Oh my god," Nagisa mumbles, closing his eyes in pain. "Karma? Please?" If he doesn't divert the conversation topic quick, he has a sinking feeling that Nakamura will turn out to be a blonde female version of Karma, and the two of them will team up to embarrass him at any given opportunity. One is plenty for him, thank you. "We should be learning the second spell now, right Koro-sensei?"

"Indeed you should be, Nagisa," the dark lord says, suddenly standing beside them. "Although I'm always up to hear some school gossip." Nagisa almost falls out of his chair. _I should get used to him doing that. He seems to do it a lot._

"Very slick, Nagisa," Karma sighs, but then immediately turns to shoot a spell at the dark lord. "Damn. Isn't there another way to kill you, Koro-sensei? It doesn't seem like these spells are gonna work alone. Hate to say it, but you're too fast for a group of seventh years."

"We do have a few magical objects that could be of use," Karasuma mentions, drawing their attention. "The most direct way to kill him would be through a spell, but Shiro provided some potions that could also potentially be deadly to Koro-sensei."

"Why didn't you say so from the start?" Karma asks, jumping up from his desk and approaching Karasuma. "Potions is my best class. Did Shiro tell you how to make the potions, or did he just provide you with some? Would I be able to alter the potions to my liking? How much-"

"Karma," his teacher steps in. "Don't crowd the man. Professor Karasuma will be making the potion, as he is the potion's teacher here. You will not be permitted to make your own, for safety reasons. And please don't try to alter it. It won't end well."

"Alright," Karma sulks. "Where is the potion, anyway? Do you have it here?"

Instead of replying, Karasuma takes out a vial of purple liquid on a string and hands it to Karma. "Nagisa, Nakamura, you can come get your vials too. As soon as you run out, just come to the potions room for a refill. And try not to waste it. It takes time to brew." He looks over at Karma, who already spilled half of it on the dark lord's desk, and sighs. "I'll distribute the other potions later. Focus on your spellwork."

"Got it, sir," Nagisa says, swirling his potion around on its little necklace. _Maybe I can make it shoot out of something? No, the dark lord would just dodge like he does with our spells. The element of surprise is key. I'm not going to be able to kill him here, when he's expecting it._

The thought wakes him up. _I can't kill him here. It's a waste of time to try and shoot a spell at him while he's teaching. The best use of my time would be to pay attention, absorb all of his information, and use it against him when he's least expecting it._

He knows trying to tell this to Karma would be pointless. Honestly, the only reason he's probably here and not ditching entirely is because he gets to basically do whatever he wants in this class. If he had to choose between getting his teeth pulled out one by one and having to take a whole year of classes without ditching, Karma would be hard pressed for a decision. He can't sit still, plain and simple. He has to be doing something.

As for Nakamura, Nagisa thinks that he can clue her in, although she probably already knows. Her eyes look like they take everything in like Karma's, except instead of discarding the information a second later in exchange for something more exciting, hers calculate how useful the information is. _She's solid competition. I'll have to be careful around her in the actual matches._

"We should save our potion for later," he whispers to her. "I mean, you probably already know that. Um. But if we save ours up and keep getting more from Professor Karasuma, it'll be a lot easier to get him."

Nakamura looks surprised, but nods. "I was thinking that too. Also, I think it'll be easier for us to kill him if we work together. Some combination of the spells and the potions. If we can get him distracted, we got him."

"Yeah, I totally agree." Nagisa's surprised at how smoothly this conversation's going. He's usually _shit_ at talking to new people. _Maybe it's the extenuating circumstances. Maybe I should always be placed in end-of-the-world-life-or-death scenarios, for the sake of my social well being._

"Should we tell Karma about this?" she asks, and they both look over at the boy, who's now pestering Karasuma for the recipe.

"Nah. He wouldn't go along with it. He's the impulsive type, and when he plans something, he plans it alone. I don't think he'd want to team up with anyone." Sad but true. Nagisa doesn't want to relive anything like the horror that was being Karma's Potions partner. _Acid. Acid everywhere._

"Alright. So we'll keep it between us, then." She zips her lips, and Nagisa copies the motion. _An ally. I really have an ally here. I thought it would be me and Karma honestly, but this works out too. I have a better chance now._

Before long, the dark lord dismisses them for their next class.

"Keep practicing those spells!" he says. "And for homework, read up on a famous wizarding assassination and write a paragraph about how it was effective and what could be changed about it."

"But professor," Nagisa says, "we don't know anything about assassination yet."

The dark lord freezes with his chalk in hand. "Ah. Right. Well, we'll work on that more tomorrow. I suppose the homework will have to wait, then. Class dismissed!"

The three of them walk out, accompanied by their teachers. Karma slaps a hand on Nagisa's shoulder, probably harder than he intended.

"Thanks for getting us out of that homework! I already have a shitload of coursework that I brought from Durmstrang, it would be such a bummer to have even more than that." He peers at his teacher from the corner of his eye, sticking out his tongue. "That wasn't as much of a snoozefest as I thought it would be. Shame we can't hit him, right?"

"Not yet," Nagisa says, rubbing the newly forming sore spot on his shoulder. "It's only our first day, though. We have months before the test is over." _Before he destroys the world._ "I think we're off to a good start."

"Blech, optimism, get it away from me."

"I think he's right," Nakamura says, putting her hand down on Nagisa's other shoulder. Luckily for him, she does it gently. "It wouldn't do us any good to go into this thinking we'll lose. We have some good stuff going for us, right?"

Karma turns to her, and for just a moment, his eyes look dangerous. Nagisa can sense his mood swings like telling the weather from years of practice, and for that one moment, he's scared for her. No one ever comes out from Karma's bad side totally intact.

Scared and confused, actually. _What's setting him off now?_

But then Karma blinks, and his eyes are clear as day. "Two optimists? Now that's just excessive," he jokes, and if Nakamura noticed his look from before, she doesn't show it. As always, Nagisa's the only one to notice things. 

They reach the end of the corridor, and Nakamura and Karma need to go back to their respective classes. 

"Later, Nagisa," Nakamura calls, following her professor to their carriages.

"See ya tomorrow, Nagisa," Karma says, flashing him a wave. 

That leaves Nagisa alone with Karasuma again. 

"So, Nagisa," the man says awkwardly, like he's a distant uncle or something. "Do you really feel like you're learning a lot in the class with Koro-sensei?"

Nagisa clutches his notebook tighter in his hands. "Yes, definitely." _More than you could know._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excindo and Contreo: two latin words that both mean some variation of "destroy"
> 
> also can someone please invent new synonyms for "laugh"? most of them are weird and have weird connotations. i don't like them. chortle? bad. snicker? evil. snort? decent, but not that great. giggle? don't even. chuckle? vomit. 
> 
> i'm physically dying here someone with language authority help me and make a word for that laugh you do by pushing air out of your nose
> 
> (side note: what a power throuple KarmaNakaGisa would be? I'm not writing that here and also Karma's too gay but damn. That energy)

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: laurenshappenstobemyhusband
> 
> I... don't know when this will update again. Draft about to be deleted so I posted, you know the drill. I do like this AU tho so can't wait to continue it!


End file.
